BRIDGMAN BLOCK DESTROYED

The most disastrous blaze since the conflagration of 1887, and exceeding that in financial loss, visited Hanover early October 30, when the Bridgman Block, the largest business block in the village, was totally destroyed. An eighteeninch wall between the burned structure and the Davison Block on the north, and extremely fortunate weather conditions were all that saved the entire business section and the College buildings on the Southwest, border of the campus. The .total loss was $91,500, of which $37,500 was sustained by the builder and owner of the block, Mr. Don S. Bridgman. The total insurance was about $52,000.

The cause of the blaze is unknown. The fire was discovered at two o'clock, and when the fire company arrived, two minutes later, smoke was issuing from all the basement windows. For ninety minutes the firemen, baffled in repeated attempts to force their way through the smoke to the fire, fought in vain to find the blaze, until 3.30 o'clock sheets of flame burst through the basement windows of Miss E. J. Clark's millinery store. The firemen worked valiantly to stay the progress of the blaze, but when a few minutes later the fire shot up through the airshaft, the building was doomed, and the firemen thereafter confined their efforts to saving surrounding property. The brick walls of the burning structure fell at 4.25 o'clock, and partially smothered the flames long enough to save the buildings on the south. The thick firewall stopped the fire on the north. The Hanover Inn, the Casque and Gauntlet House, and other buildings caught fire several times from flying brands.

The burned block was built in I900 on the sites of the old Swasey stable and the West millinery stand. The losses and insurance were as follows: Mr. Bridgman, total loss $37,500, insurance $27,500; Allen Drug company, loss $I6,000, insurance $6,000; H. N. Sanborn, loss $3,000, insurance $I,000; Ed Orrill, barber, loss $500, no insurance; Miss Clark, milliner, loss $3,500, insurance $1,000; G. W. Rand and Son' furniture dealers, loss $I3,000, insurance $4,500; Telephone company, loss $6,000, no insurance; Delta Kappa Epsilor fraternity, loss $I,OOO, insurance 400; Dr. E. H. Carleton, Medical School '97, loss $2,000, insurance $500; Instructor G. S. Graham '02, Medical School '05, loss $I,000, no insurance; Dr. W. S. Bowles, dentist, loss $I,500, insurance $500; Good Samaritan Lodge, I. O. O. F., loss $3,500, insurance $I,000; Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, loss $500, no insurance.

The following students, who roomed in the fraternity rooms mentioned, lost a total of $1,500 in various personal effects: Amos Dodge 'O7, T. T. Redington '07, F. W. Anderson 'OB, A. T. Anderson 'OB, E. C. Ford '09, C. H. Walker 'OB, E. P. Norris '09, P. N. Storer '09.